Seeing Double
by CompletelyAnonymousxd
Summary: Ever wonder where are all these jerk son of poseidons come from? how, even with their terrible personality, they somehow win the heart of Percy's girlfriend and the campers' favour? All of those questions are answered here, but Percy may also uncover a dark secret, which may lead him to question: Is he the only Percy Jackson in the universe(s)? Kind of a Percabeth.
1. Chapter 1: Here We Go Again

**Hi guys, so this is a really weird topic for me to tackle. I'm sure at one point in our Percy Jackson fanfiction lives, we've come across the ever so popular topic of the jerk half-brother of Percy Jackson, this son of Poseidon claimed to be the favoured descendant of the sea god, loved by Annabeth and obviously adored by everyone in camp. Much to our horror (and excitement. Let's be real, you guys love Dark Percy don't you), this sends Percy either to become a god or a demon from Tartarus, or a lame excuse for another girl to become Percy's "true love", mostly Thalia or Reyna or Artemis, or perhaps Piper.**

 **As much as this is absolutely ridiculous and hilariously overused like Percy, Guardian Of The Hunt, I've been wondering: Where in the actual Hades are these sons of Poseidon coming from?**

 **So to clear up all of those doubts: here's this new story I wrote on the spot to answer this age-old question.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 _I would give an elaborate description of the events leading up to the actual one of importance, but to sum what had happened, here's what you should do. Think about every single story which involved a half-brother of Percy swooping in and "stealing his girl". Got it? Good. That's what happened. Since I would rather not bore you with yet another mundane and uncreative story in that regards, let's skip to the part where actual thoughts were perceived to write, and not blind and mindless copying from lack of creativity, shall we?_

I stormed into my cabin and slammed the door behind me. He was there, lazing on the couch, his two feet propped up on the table where my stuff was, and he was eating a bag of Doritos. I wrinkled my nose at the stench, but was too fumed to care.

"Hi Jackson." He smirked, stuffing another handful of tortillas in his mouth. "What's up?'

"You stole my girlfriend, you bit-"

 _Wait, sorry, this isn't the part. You know it isn't when Percy says a vulgarity. That isn't canon, I'm pretty sure. I keep getting confused between actual canon Percy who's a nice guy and fanon dark percy who swears and gets jealous to the point of screaming, which is weird. It's like getting Tartarus and Olympus mixed up._

 _Anyways, I think I got it now._

I backed away quickly, my hands reaching for my pocket. I brought out Riptide as my eyes widened before the horror five feet away. One moment he was fine, next moment his eyes were bulging and...this happened.

Matt ( _gosh, even the name isn't creative_ )'s face started to change; it became less pudgy, more lean. His brown hair started to blacken and become more sleek. His clothes ripped like they were caught in a tornado, but was instantaneously replaced with a orange camp half blood t-shirt and jeans. He screamed like he was being bathed in the Styx.

"Is he some kind of monster?" I thought, too shocked to do anything. "What in Hades is going on?" I stood rooted to the ground, mind whirling. ( _as though Percy would be scared of this and not, like, find help or anything. But hey, I didn't write this part_ )

As his...transformation completed, I couldn't hold back a gasp at the new Matt.

It was me. Or at least, a copy. He had the same half-blood t-shirt, copied right down to that unremovable stain of gravy I got last Christmas, and the slight tear at the hem I got from fighting. His hair was just as messy as mine, and midnight black. His emerald eyes

( _wait, no this is written by a terrible writer. I think this word suits better._ )

His emerald _orbs_ reflected mine, both just as wild and shocked.

Then, without warning, he leaped at me. I swung Riptide on instinct. The blade passed through him cleanly. Scarlet spurted.

He fell on the ground, bloodied. He was gasping for breath. Through my panic, I managed to shout, "Medic! Medic!", hoping the Apollo campers could hear.

 _Wait a minute, this is dark Percy. He can't be nice, especially not to the half-brother who swept Annabeth off her feet. You know what? No, we can't have that._

Through my panic, I knew he had but moments left. I wanted to say something, but he spoke first.

"You-Me-" He wheezed. Blood pooled at his chest, the same liquid that poured from his lips. "All-a-game. Go-now. Olympus."

Then he died. ( _Due to my terrible writing skills, this is all I can write. Sorry, the good writers in the community didn't have any death scenes regarding this guy since they stuck with canon. Actually, maybe they did, but I couldn't bother to look at other stories not revolving around dark angsty Percy. You think I make effort in my stories? LMAO_ )

I looked behind me. The door was rattling on its hinges. Someone, or some people, were pounding on it.

"Matt! What's going on? Open the door!" Brawn Brodsmith ( _Enter, the son of Ares who is new and is the president of the I-love-the-jerkysonofposeidon fan club. Of course, he hates Percy)_ shouted.

I heard other voices, aside from him. Other supporters of Matt, no doubt, but I also heard Annabeth and Chiron.

"Jackson! What did you do?"

"We heard screams! Did Percy hurt you?" The shrill feminine voice of Annabeth _insert 5 lines of how her voice broke Percy's heart despite the situation that he's about to be put on trial for murder, but exclude how totally ridiculous that is_

The slamming grew louder. The door would be breaking any second, and everyone was going to think I had murdered Matt out of jealousy. I had only one thought in my head. "I have to leave."

I shrunk Riptide and leaped into the ocean, determined to find out what was happening for real. The image of Matt and his last words were engraved into my mind.

"All a game."


	2. Chapter 2: Coz Gods Solve Everything

_Hi, back for another round of shaming young and amateur writers with satire and sarcastic remarks? Great. Just gimme a sec, I have to take the boring parts out (basically what said amateur writers would write) so you don't press back and find another dark Percy fanfic to quench your thirst of seeing Percy commit fratricide. That would unwind everything I've written here._

 _So here's what happened. Percy embarked on the ever hand-trembling, eye-glueing, oh-so-difficult task of getting to Olympus. You can practically hear Blessed Of The Isles calling to him._

 _Anyways let's pick up from where we left off, yeah?_

* * *

The Olympians were seated at their thrones in intense discussion. ( _Of course they all have to be here, how else would we stir them into a frenzy regarding Percy's ultimate betrayal and anguish, and cause a random female goddess to fall madly in love for Percy doing the most Herculean task of all: getting over annabeth. *gasp* the horror!_ )

 _Sorry, I can't use the brackets anymore. I myself can't distinguish when I should be using parentheses and when to paragraph me speaking. Anyways, sorry to disappoint you. I mean, Matt/Matthew/Another name that starts with M is already dead, so no revenge or godhood. Have some boring dialogue instead!_

"What's going on?" Percy demanded. All eyes turned to face him. Zeus' expression hardened at the lack of any respect.

 _Now, here's where some people may describe every Olympian's expression and reaction. Don't._

"What do you mean, Perseus? You asked for our audience." He gruffly relied.

Percy turned to face his father. "Matt? Where did he come from?"

Poseidon's face turned blank. "Where did who come from? I don't know any demigod called Matt."

"You mean you don't know your own son?"

"My only son is you, Perseus."

The conversation seemed to only include the two. Voices faded as the Olympians stared intently at the demigod and Poseidon.

"Don't lie to me, Poseidon!" Percy roared.

 _Ah, wait, that's not how it works. See, Matt is dead, so there's no point being jealous of him. Even if he was still alive as the many stories foretell, I'm sure shouting at an omnipotent Immortal who is also your father is not the most respectful thing to do. Do note Percy is not a hooligan._

"Then why did a demigod named Matt enter camp just a few hours ago and claimed to be your favoured son?" Percy said, unable to hold back an accusing tone.

"Percy, I swear by the Styx, I do not know of a son of mine named Matt. You are the only demigod son I have had in a long while."

 _See? Because making an oath by the Styx would solve so many misunderstandings. Honestly, why don't people use more of these things? Oh wait, drama. Right. Carry on then._

Percy's anger subsided slightly at that. He took a deep breath. It was at this moment that Athena spoke up.

"Perhaps you should tell us what has happened, Perseus." She inquired.

Percy told them everything. ( _This is a time where I can a) use brackets and b) be lazy. Everyone already knows what happened so why retell it just to fulfil your word count? It's boring._ )

When he was done, Percy watched the expressions of the Olympians carefully. Many were confused and shocked, especially at the part of Matt's gruesome death and strange happening.

But no, Percy studied their faces, scrutinising every single movement ( _how does Percy do this? I don't know. It's not like fanfic has to be 100% canon_ ), and he noticed something.

Recognition.

"You guys have seen this before." He plainly stated. They averted their eyes at this, shuffling in their seats. Zeus cleared his throat.

"I think you must be imagining things, Perseus. We have never heard of another son of Poseidon." He tried to point an accusatory glare at the sea god to prove his words.

Percy was unfazed. "Tell me what's going on."

"We are not obligated to fulfil your request, Percy Jack-Johnston!" Dionysus stuttered.

He looked adamant, and the Olympians mirrored his expression. Percy could sense he wasn't going to get an answer anytime soon.

"Fine. I'll go."

He could feel the eyes of the gods on him as he swung open the door and closed it. Then he presses his ear to it. Unsurprisingly, he heard them immediately launch into a conversation.

 _Because obviously the gods are so powerful they can wipe out cities, but can't expel a demigod from Olympus or even bother to check whether he's still eavesdropping. Coz logic._

Among the frenzied arguments, Percy locked onto the voice of his father.

"No, we didn't tell him anything! We swear!"

There was a voice that rumbled incomprehensibly, and Percy could have sworn he felt the gods flinch.

 _How, you ask? I don't know._

"Yes, we understand, our lord." Zeus said in supplication. His voice quavered.

There was a tense silence, so taut he could have pierced it with a pin. Then there was a brilliant flash of light that blasted through the gaps in the door, followed by a collective sigh of evident relief.

Percy only noticed the temperature drop after...whoever that was, leave. He felt warmth tingling his fingertips, and his chest felt like he had just downed a warm cup of hit chocolate.

He couldn't question the gods again. Perhaps he had pushed them to their limits already, or the strange voice would notice him and probably kill him, assuming he hadn't even seen Percy listening from outside.

Percy couldn't help but feel uneasy. What was so powerful even Zeus would bow to him, or her, or it?


	3. Chapter 3: Convenient Plot Devices

What will I do now? Percy thought. If only I had something strange occur that could drive the plot forward in the most convenient and timely part where I, the main character, am at a loss at what to do...

Suddenly, a bright light flashed in front of him. He averted his eyes instinctively, thinking it was an immortal showing his or her true form. Not that it would matter. I mean, what you think the MC can die? Lol. #PlotArmour.

*clears throat* so anyway, when the light died like the inspiration in this fandom a few years ago, Percy stared at the being. He had never seen anyone like it. Running through the list of gods, goddesses or Titans, he couldn't place that being's face anywhere. He couldn't even tell if it was a male or a female. It looked, timeless and pure.

"Perseus Jackson," it called, its voice echoey and similar to a choir speaking in concord beauty (Totally didn't thesaurus that). "You wish to know your answer to the question that lies in your mind. To do so, you must find The Tome Of Creation."

"Why?" He asked, feeling more relaxed seeing as it wasn't a threat, even though there was absolutely no earlier description to show that Percy had initially assumed it was dangerous.

"Because Macguffins are amazing. Oh wait, you mean - Right, uhh because it holds the answer you seek."

"I know, you just said that."

"Shh! I'm trying to extend the word count and this conversation so it looks mildly of importance!"

"Oh, okay. Where do I find the Tome?"

 **Normally, this is the part where the person would drop some vague, cryptic hints that causes the protagonist to go on a long journey to uncover more hints that eventually leads to his final destination. But because this is a short story and I'm lazy, how about we just tell it to him straight?**

"At the bottom of the lake at your Camp."

 **See, now would be a great time to end the chapter on a cliffhanger, but sometimes it has no point if the last line was not threatening at all. Just because it sounded so dramatic and gives the protag the next place to go, there is little to no need to end it here, unless it actually is dangerous or has implications that are important that your readers understand it. Ah s*** this is becoming less satire. Moving on.**

"Oh ok, thanks."

"Yep. See you." And with that, it disappeared into thin air. Percy couldn't help but notice that it did not disappear with a blinding flash, which meant that it couldn't have been a god. So what was it?

Percy decided to forget it and concentrate on his current task. Going back to camp. A bolt of fear coursed through him at the thought. They're probably still angry at me, for what happened to Mastodon.

Wait a moment, shouldn't we have dedicated some time to show Percy's grief and his feelings over what had happened that forced him to leave camp? After all, it was quite a shocking and unexpected event. In fact, it was the exact event that caused our protagonist to exit his world of comfort and forced him into this story's plot. He should be feeling all kinds of emotions now, wouldn't he? Whatevs, just say he was too much in shock.

Percy sucked in a breath and walked to the entrance of camp.


	4. Chapter 4: The End

Oh no, you're probably thinking, it's the last chapter! Exactly, that's what chapter titles are meant to do, giving you a brief overview of the content in this chapter. Some choose to avoid them like Rick Riordan in HoO or the lazy ones, others use them.

I'm currently on my sass meds so I shall offer some genuine advice before I inevitably relapse. If you wish to not spoil the fact that it is a last chapter, don't put "The End". You just gave away the fact to your readers that this is, apart from a potential epilogue, the final update and the plot will thus be resolved. Whatever you put above, your readers will gain that information, so don't put anything you don't wish to spoil. Simple.

Few exceptions to this: If you're trying for some fancy wordplay, then by all means. If you have something that has a double meaning then use it so your readers will be thrown off when you have the first obvious meaning revealed to them early but the second unexpected definition takes them by surprise.

Have fun with chapter titles. Just make sure they don't ruin your story. Except for this one because it is the last chapter.

* * *

Percy decided that avoiding any contact with the campers would be preferred since he has been abruptly marked as a fugitive for the past hour even though he is widely well-liked by the camp for leading them in the second Titanomachy as well as being an all-around good MC - uh I mean, guy.

But obviously no one, not even the gods-knows how old wise centaur Chiron would object to mark Percy as a target to capture on sight. Because Moshi was such a great, totally not an arrogant prick, 10/10 guy in the few minutes he showed up at camp that his death would have such a tragic impact on the campers.

Probably should have said this at the first or second chapter. Oh well.

Anyway, Percy dived into the water and swam around and using his super senses underwater that he apparently had before, he found the Tome, which looked like an ordinary book except it was faded and its cover was torn at a corner. Grabbing it, he swam back to land and opened it.

Rays of pure, blinding white light exploded from its pages as he did, and suddenly, he disappeared, his surroundings fading into darkness.

He found himself floating in a space-like place. He was breathing just fine, but he couldn't make anything out. He had no idea where he was. On instinct, his hand moved to his pocket to draw Riptide, but was shocked to feel nothing.

"Hello?" He tried saying. The word carried forward for a puny few seconds before it was lost to the silence.

"Greetings, Perseus." The same figure from before appeared before him. His eyes widened in recognition.

"It's you! What's going on? Where am I?" Percy shouted.

It smiled. "So many questions. Very well, for the sake of the plot and that some revelations must be imparted to you in this final chapter, I shall reveal everything to you and the reader because I am surprisingly not an antagonist. The latter should, in fact, not be revealing everything to the captured protagonist because that is stupid and I have no idea why that happens. I suppose I can only blame myself." It ended with a rueful sigh.

"Where to begin, where to begin...How about your half-brother...uh, Momo was his name right? No, Marty? Morrowind? Morgan? Mass Effect?"

"Matt."

"Close enough. Now where was I...right! He, in his last moments, suddenly became you. Or a copy."

Percy nodded slowly. "He said everything was a game."

"Indeed it is. You must by now realize this world of yours is entire fictional, the brainchild of a certain author by the name of Rick Riordan, or at least, that could be his psudonym. Regardless, your existence is the spawn of his ink on his manuscript that he sent to his publishers. Now, it would not take long for fans to take your character and make different versions of yourself, each with varying or constant attributes to your personality, as well as changes to the universe that you exist within. Is this making sense yet?"

"Not at all. You kind of just broke the fourth wall and make me, a fictional character have an existiential crisis."

"We're all breaking the fourth wall here. Well, it doesn't matter if you do not understand, because this whole conversation is simply a way to convey information to the reader, hence you are irrelevant to this story."

"That hurts."

It shrugged. "Anyway, seeing such a great character that Mr Riordan has developed, many of the fans have decided to write their own stories based on their own imagination. And for some reason, a trend has came about that I myself cannot explain. Now bear with me, this may be too much for you to handle."

"Oh great there's more?"

It pretended not to notice. "They wanted to see you become torn, betrayed, anguished. Hence they made an OC - an original character, if you do not speak the lingo. Your half-brother."

"But he was not a good one. See, to make you have a complete change of heart, your half-brother had to do something drastic, something horrific. So they made everyone in camp, apart from a few of your closest friends like Grover, Clarisse, Katie and the Stoll Twins, completely adore and worship your half-brother. Of course, this varies from telling to telling, but generally this is how it goes."

"And then they made Annabeth transform from an intelligent, logical, caring girlfriend to a dumb, selfish, betraying person by instantly falling in love with your half-brother. And to go on another tangent, this half - you know what, I'm too lazy to type half-brother every time, I'm just calling him brother now, but no offense."

"Go ahead."

"Right, so your bro isn't even like good-looking. I mean, some stories make him unexplainably hot, but some versions make him so ugly that your stepdad could be a supermodel."

Percy shuddered. "Yikes."

"I know right? But I guess that's how they work. So by stealing away everything you cared for - your home, your girlfriend, but at least you have your closest friends and the girl they ship you with next."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, sometimes it's Reyna, Thalia or Piper. But mostly it's Artemis."

"No thanks. I'd rather stay healthy and alive."

"No it's all fine, because you somehow win her over by showing your amazing, suave side, or whatever. But that's not the point! Point is, that's what your brother is for. To make you all dark and angsty so that you get the next girl, then come back and breath vengeance on all those who 'betrayed' you. Extreme cases would be that you become Tartarus or something."

"Wow. I don't like these people."

"I know right? But that's what everyone likes."

"So in a way, Matt's just a plot device?"

"Yep."

"But how did he turn into me?"

It opened its mouth to answer, but suddenly the light it was emnating stuttered. Blinking.

"Oh no, it can't be…" It said in horror.

"What? Who?"

Percy's question was answered when another figure appeared. This one was seemingly the exact copy of the first strange figure, except it was almost complete black. If not for the light it was reflecting from its shiny surface, Percy couldn't see it.

"Greetings, Perseus Jackson!" It grinned cheerily. "I see you're all ready."

"Ready? Ready for what?" Percy didn't like the fearful expression that the light figure was having.

"Your spin on the…" A rope suddenly appeared next to it, dangling. It pulled it, and a circus wheel appeared.

"Wheel. Of. Shipping!"

Percy could sort of make out what the various sectors read. "Reyna, Artemis, Piper, Artemis, Thalia, Artemis, Athena, Artemis, Katie, Artemis, Hestia, Artemis…"

"Here we go!" The other figure spun it.

"Congratulations! It's Artemis! Again." It sighed. "Right, next round!"

It knocked the wheel over and brought out a second one that...somehow appeared. Percy assumed the two were omnipotent.

"Chaos blessed, Angel of death, son of Hades, son of long-lost Titan, son of Tartarus, ruler of Tartarus, Heir of Chaos, Guardian of the Hunt, Guardian of the Hunt, Guardian of the Hunt…" It was reading off the wheel in excitement. "WOW! GUARDIAN OF THE HUNT! WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT!"

"What is all of this!" Percy shouted, finally getting the attention of the enthusiastic figure. It stared at him with soulless eyes.

"Well, I thought my friend here had explained everything. It's all a game! The lot of you Percys take turns becoming either the protagonist or the a-hole." He explained as though it was obvious. "You had your chance in your last story, but you kind of messed it up when your bro defected. But no matter! I'm happy to give you another shot!"

Percy was flabbergasted. "Wha - Wait. Who are you? Both of you."

The two looked at each other, before facing him. "You haven't figured it out?" Mr Enthusiastic said with a hint of surprise. "I'm the fandom. He's the author of this story."

"We don't get along." Author sighed.

"Nonsense! He loves seeing repeated fanfics about you X OC - uh I mean X Artemis. Sorry, thought this was Wattpad for a second."

"Anyway, do you understand everything now? Because I'd really like to end the story here." Author said.

"So...the gods are scared of you?" He looked at Fandom.

"Of course they are! I'm the god of gods! Well, technically, Rick is above me, but I think he's left this plane of existence when he saw what he had done. So for now, I'm the omnipotent one here. I mean, I have the power to ship anyone with anyone. Man, you should have seen Demeter when I made another Author write a Permeter fanfic. I mean, it's so rare. On the other hand, Artemis has practically given up."

"But...there's no escape from this?"

"Nope! As long as people write fanfics about you having an absolutely terrible experience with your brother and everything you love, this cycle will always repeat itself. For eternity."

Percy felt...well, what should he feel? Horrified, scared, angry. But also acceptance, because as the Author, no matter how illogical it is, I wield the power to make him feel whatever I want him to feel. So I say he has accepted his fate. That he is not the only Percy in the multiverse, and all of this are just puppets on strings, on a stage, in an uncaring world torn apart by unoriginal fanfics.

Good day.

* * *

Okay, real talk here, like Out of Story talk. So yes, this is the last chapter and everything. And jokes aside, I hope this story has done something to help you. If you want to write a Pertemis story of him becoming a Guardian of the Hunt, I don't exactly approve of it, but I can understand that feeling of reading an awesome story and wanting to add on, or put my own twist on it. And I'm aware that this fandom isn't exactly filled with adults, but teenagers, and we are still impressionable people. So that desire to copy, not fully plagiarise of course, the ideas of others, is understandable.

I originally set out to write this story as a satire way of poking fun at this fandom. It's not meant to hate or shame the people that do what I pointed out in this short story. But after coming back to this a few years later and seeing this, I've had a couple revelations and decided to make it more helpful, so I included some writing advice, not just fandom-specific, but in general.

I also know that I'm not a qualified writer. I'm still a teenager, so I'm still amateurish. But frankly speaking, I think I'm more qualified to talk about some basic things that some writers here still lack. Basic grammar and storylines are one thing.

There is obviously better advice out there from people not even in our league, but I wanted to include some of my own tips in here that if you look through the sarcasm, you can see what I meant to say.

You can tell that at the end I kind of left all that sass and broke the 4th wall completely to finish up the story and to be honest I enjoyed writing it. It was a rare piece where I had inspiration to finish this chapter within half an hour non-stop.

So this is the end, I guess. It was my first attempt at writing something humourous so I don't know if all the attempted jokes fell flat or not. If you got a laugh out of it, that's great. If you wish to hate on me or the fic (with constructive feedback and ideas), I would love to discuss the prevalence of all the tropes I've mentioned in here. If its blind hate I'll probably cry in a corner or something.

And if anyone who has done one of these overused cliches before is reading this, I feel the need to mention that it is not done to mock you, but if I have crossed the line between poking fun and cold mockery, I do apologise and I hope this won't discourage you from writing anymore, but will instead inspire you to do better.

Cheers.


End file.
